The military action that we are watching in the Middle East right now is just a preview of coming attractions. Tensions in the region are rising with each passing day, and all sides have been anticipating future conflicts and preparing for war for decades. It would be wonderful if everyone could sit down, forgive each other and agree to quit fighting, but that is not going to happen. Most of us that live in the western world have a very difficult time understanding the mindset of those immersed in these conflicts. In the Middle East, there are vendettas and grudges that go back literally thousands of years. Children are raised in schools where they are taught to bitterly hate their enemies from the time that they are first able to speak. As Americans, we have forgiven former enemies such as Germany and Japan and we just expect that everyone else should be able to forgive as well. But that is simply not the way that it works over there, and there is no long-term solution in the Middle East that is going to be acceptable to all sides. Right now, Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Syria and Iran are all preparing for war. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail in this current crisis, but that will only delay the inevitable. There will be war in the Middle East. Yes, politicians such as Barack Obama will do their best to broker more "peace agreements", but even the declaration of a "Palestinian state" will never stop the fighting. In fact, it would just set the stage for more war. I don't mean to sound pessimistic about the region, but the truth is that there will be more war until it is not possible to fight any longer. Any "peace plan" will just be a pause in the warfare.

-Hamas has launched dozens of rockets into Israel since Saturday. At one point, the IDF estimated that at least 130 rockets had been fired from Gaza. Other estimates have put the number of rocket attacks much higher.

-In response, the IDF launched a military operation in Gaza on Wednesday. This involved the killing of the head of the military wing of Hamas, Ahmed Jabari, in an airstrike that was captured on video. You can see video of the airstrike right here.

-The IDF also attacked more than 20 underground rocket launchers in Gaza. The goal was to stop them from launching more rockets into Israel. Apparently those rocket launchers were capable of hitting targets 25 miles over the border into Israel.

-In response to the Wednesday attacks by the IDF, a substantial number of rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel. The IDF says that the Iron Dome missile defense system was able to intercept 13 of the rockets.

-The IDF says that the military operations they conducted on Wednesday were part of a “major offensive” and that a ground attack may also be coming.

-”Operation Pillar of Defense” is the code name that has been given to this campaign.

-The IDF is not taking any options off the table. The following is from a message posted on the IDF Twitter account...

“All options are on the table. If necessary, the IDF is ready to initiate a ground operation in Gaza.”
-In particular, the IDF is being very open about the fact that top Hamas leaders will be targeted. The following is from another message posted on the IDF Twitter account...

“We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.”
-The U.S. State Department has denounced Hamas for the rocket attacks against Israel and is saying that Israel has the right to self-defense.

-The military wing of Hamas says that Israel “has opened the gates of hell.”

-One top Hamas official, Khalil al-Haya, is very clear about what his goal is...

“The battle between us and the occupation is open and it will end only with the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem”
-Islamic Jihad has released a statement that is very critical of the IDF attack on Wednesday...

“Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences.”
In Egypt, the head of the most important political party is warning that Egypt may have to get involved if the fighting continues. The following is from a Breitbart report...

Today, Egypts Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood  a party formerly headed by current President Mohammed Morsi  announced that Egypt would get involved if Israel continued to kill terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Such Israeli action, said the party, would prompt swift Arab and international action to stop the massacres. The party also warned that Israel must take into account the changes in the Arab region and especially Egypt [Egypt] will not allow the Palestinians to be subjected to Israeli aggression, as in the past.
-Things also continue to get more tense with Syria. Israel has fired tank shells into Syria twice since Sunday. They did this in response to Syrian shells which struck the Golan Heights. This marked the first time that Israel had fired tank shells into Syria since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

-Syrian rebels are receiving a massive influx of arms and assistance. The following is from a recent article in the Washington Post...

Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.

Obama administration officials emphasized that the United States is neither supplying nor funding the lethal material, which includes antitank weaponry. Instead, they said, the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.
-It is being reported that UK troops may soon be deployed to areas near the border with Syria.

-NATO has announced that it is prepared to defend Turkey if necessary...

NATO will defend alliance member Turkey, which struck back after mortar rounds fired from Syria landed inside its border, the alliances Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting in Prague on Monday.

NATO as an organization will do what it takes to protect and defend Turkey, our ally. We have more plans in place to make sure that we can protect and defend Turkey and hopefully that way also deter so that attacks on Turkey will not take place, he said.
Once again, hopefully all of this will settle down in a few days.

But it is never easy to predict what is going to happen next in the Middle East. There is so much hate and anger and things could literally explode over there at any time.

In the months and years to come, I expect the Middle East to become a major issue for the global economy and a major political issue inside the United States.

When war does erupt in the Middle East, it is going to dramatically affect the price of oil, and there will also be a tremendous amount of debate about whether the U.S. military should intervene or not.

Let us hope for peace, but let us also be very realistic about the situation over there. Our world is becoming more unstable with each passing day, and the times that are coming are going to be very challenging.

In 1977 I worked at a hotel in Crystal City, that’s just across the the Potomac River from D.C. There was a young guy working the front desk that came from Jordan. He was always pleasant and friendly. One day I happened to make a remark about something that was happening at the time between Israel and whoever was shooting at them. I swear, you could see the rage rise up his face as he literally spat venom and hate towards Israel and Jews in general. That was my first experience with anything like that. I was totally flabbergasted by his transformation. I’ll never forget it. They won’t quit over there till either one side or the other is wiped out.

13
posted on 11/14/2012 7:55:36 PM PST
by W.Lee
("RID THE WORLD OF THOSE SAVAGES!)

It will start in the Middle East, then they will come for us, and the Democrats will help them in every way they can not realizing that THEY will then become the slaves of the Muslims when and if they can destroy the American Spirit.

The war will be fought until one side wins and the other side loses. When I mean win—they must consume and destroy the other side until there is no one left to wage war. It is a cold and terrible pronouncement but—I fear— True. No treaty will do—only a funeral. The Arabs must be pushed into the sea and killed—everyone, or the same will happen to the Jews. Not one will be left alive. The conflict will end only in a Holocaust for one side or the other. If I was an Israeli I would move to the USA as quickly as possible. I believe the Arabs have the edge—their religious fanaticism will win the day for them if it takes another 100 years.

Cain and Abel. It is a result of original sin (man’s fallen nature) and the scenario repeats in all conflicts down through history. This is precisely why a socialist atheist human U(dys)topia will not succeed. Humans can individually win over their own moral shortcomings by the use of their own free willpower - the collective can’t do it because it is impossible.

And get a good radiation detector, if nuclear weapons are used the Fallout could reach us. Use the detectors to test the food and drink you consume. There was a run on all types in Japan and many consumed contaminated products.

38
posted on 11/15/2012 5:17:45 AM PST
by 2001convSVT
(Going Galt as fast as I can.)

Now having been to the several arab countries, Eygpt and Saudi, they are filled with uneducated, very lazy people. They have lived a life of leasure, where they hire the Paki’s to do their work. Unless they can hire an army, they can’t win even though they may be religous lunitics. They have no intellectual, techincal, or moral advantage

I believe it re the Jordanian guy you met. But remember that in Israel they are not driven by hatred. THEY WANT ONLY TO SURVIVE AND LIVE IN FREEDOM. This is not a fight between equals. Israel wants to prevent their own death, which makes their tactics more “final.” They have no goal to annihilate anyone who doesn’t wish them harm.

It looks like the IDF will enter Gaza within the next few days. It is the only realistic way to stop the Islamic death cultists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad (both supported and armed by Iran) from rocketing deeper and deeper areas of Israel.

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